2020 Football Team: A Capital Scandal

Old Fart Tree

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Sadly, if that’s true. The ref bribing will overshadow the sexual assaults.
How much of a shit franchise do you have to be to have these clowns' record of futility while paying off refs?

On the flip side, CAN YOU IMAGINE Bill Belichick with paid off refs? HE'D BE UNSTOPPABLE
 

Hildy

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Reading through this thread as a woman, I’m not sure how to convey my reaction diplomatically. What should happen is that advertisers exert further pressure to force change. My guess is that they will not.
This was good.

Wasn't there a story a few years ago about the Redskins basically trapping cheerleaders on an island? Why did that story not blow up? It was essentially close to human trafficking as I recall.
Because it was about women. That’s why.

That's scandalous, but it doesn't seem to rise to the level of minority owners looking to unload their position.
What the heck. The previous story about the cheerleaders should have been enough! Let’s see if advertisers and sponsors exert pressure. I am doubtful.

As many feared, this is a terrible story, but not as terrible as was rumored. Curious to see if that winds up tamping down the levels of outrage. It also sounds like everyone who's mentioned other than Snyder has left the team, and there's nothing directly implicating Snyder in any of this.
It doesn’t matter if it wasn’t as horrific as rumored. It’s awful!
It's bad, but it's literally nowhere near what people had been talking about for the last 24 hours. I would even say that the rumors of the last 24 hours could diminish the impact of this story.
But who cares? This is bad enough. The story about the cheerleaders was bad enough.
Schefter carrying copious amounts of water by focusing on Washington’s amusement at the more outlandish rumors rather than focusing on the deplorable conduct actually reported on. Fucking access merchants.
Thank you.
I heard "Redtails" is out

and Piece of tail is gaining traction
Not funny.
Yea in today’s America that story isn’t gonna cause a guy to lose an NFL team.
But it should. What is wrong with this culture that it doesn’t?
 

bankshot1

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Not funny.

Hildy it was meant as a pointed satrical take on the Redskin's FO workplace and their attitude and behavior towards women colleagues.
If you took offense at the comment, I'm sorry as it was not intended in that manner.
 

riboflav

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Reading through this thread as a woman, I’m not sure how to convey my reaction diplomatically. What should happen is that advertisers exert further pressure to force change. My guess is that they will not.

Because it was about women. That’s why.


What the heck. The previous story about the cheerleaders should have been enough! Let’s see if advertisers and sponsors exert pressure. I am doubtful.



It doesn’t matter if it wasn’t as horrific as rumored. It’s awful!

But who cares? This is bad enough. The story about the cheerleaders was bad enough.

Thank you.

Not funny.

But it should. What is wrong with this culture that it doesn’t?
Good post. Snyder should be done. No equivocation.
 

The Talented Allen Ripley

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Not funny.

Hildy it was meant as a pointed satrical take on the Redskin's FO workplace and their attitude and behavior towards women colleagues.
If you took offense at the comment, I'm sorry as it was not intended in that manner.
I don't mean to single you out, but your joke was neither pointed nor funny. It wasn't satirical at all, it was frat-bro low-hanging fruit. Rick Reilly could've come up with it. Your history here has been a good one and I'm quite sure you didn't intend any malice by your comment, so my response is more of a signpost for everyone: just because you think a one-liner is there doesn't mean you have to take a swing at it. Especially if you can't land it.
 

InstaFace

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What the heck. The previous story about the cheerleaders should have been enough! Let’s see if advertisers and sponsors exert pressure. I am doubtful.
I think most everyone here agrees with you, and Nator was being cynical about the type of people who make decisions in NFL franchises. Which is pretty warranted.
 

bankshot1

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I don't mean to single you out, but your joke was neither pointed nor funny. It wasn't satirical at all, it was frat-bro low-hanging fruit. Rick Reilly could've come up with it. Your history here has been a good one and I'm quite sure you didn't intend any malice by your comment, so my response is more of a signpost for everyone: just because you think a one-liner is there doesn't mean you have to take a swing at it. Especially if you can't land it.
It was meant as satire and my take on the Redskins FO and its attitude towards women.

I shoot for honest and on-target with my tongue in cheek observations. And I believe I hit on both. If you do not share my take, you don't. And I'll get over it.

And i apologized to Hildy for any misunderstandings.
 

jose melendez

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Just read the post story. It is all disgusting, yet none of them t is in the league of the human trafficking in cr. This org is grarbage at everything
 

Royal Reader

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Bengals: Mike Brown is as dumb as the day is long, but I'd say his morals are fine.
I feel like, in addition to the KC issues previously highlighted, including Bengals ownership in this list sits uncomfortably. The franchise has long been known for not really caring about "character" in its player evaluation. Maybe this also protects them from buying into certain shitty narratives about African-Americans, but it's not really great in terms of how the franchise deals with womens' issues. And the Giants had the Josh Brown fiasco.

What's been reported seems largely analogous to the Mavericks harassment scandal, which didn't particularly come close to forcing Cuban out. Then again, Cuban did at least show significant contrition, which Dan Snyder seems incapable of doing, and wasn't in the middle of a different scandal at the time. Plus the Mavs won a title under Cuban's ownership, which shouldn't matter but obviously does. A year or so after the Mavs things broke, I remember Bill Simmons talking about the more aware owners in the NBA on his podcast, and he listed Cuban. His guest (might have been Rusillo, I don't precisely remember) had to remind Simmons that this scandal even happened.
 

The Talented Allen Ripley

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It was meant as satire and my take on the Redskins FO and its attitude towards women.

I shoot for honest and on-target with my tongue in cheek observations. And I believe I hit on both. If you do not share my take, you don't. And I'll get over it.

And i apologized to Hildy for any misunderstandings.
Look at Double-Down Trent!
 

Mooch

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I feel like, in addition to the KC issues previously highlighted, including Bengals ownership in this list sits uncomfortably. The franchise has long been known for not really caring about "character" in its player evaluation. Maybe this also protects them from buying into certain shitty narratives about African-Americans, but it's not really great in terms of how the franchise deals with womens' issues. And the Giants had the Josh Brown fiasco.

What's been reported seems largely analogous to the Mavericks harassment scandal, which didn't particularly come close to forcing Cuban out. Then again, Cuban did at least show significant contrition, which Dan Snyder seems incapable of doing, and wasn't in the middle of a different scandal at the time. Plus the Mavs won a title under Cuban's ownership, which shouldn't matter but obviously does. A year or so after the Mavs things broke, I remember Bill Simmons talking about the more aware owners in the NBA on his podcast, and he listed Cuban. His guest (might have been Rusillo, I don't precisely remember) had to remind Simmons that this scandal even happened.
You want a story that has REALLY gone under the radar for most people? Check out this SI piece about the Saints involvement in the Catholic priest abuse cases in the New Orleans diocese: https://www.si.com/nfl/2020/06/17/saints-help-to-church-more-extensive-than-admitted
 

johnnywayback

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The team should release all the women from those NDAs, the league should put overwhelming pressure on the team to do so, and sponsors should put overwhelming pressure on the league to do that. That this isn't already happening is an indictment of all involved.
 

Average Reds

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It was meant as satire and my take on the Redskins FO and its attitude towards women.

I shoot for honest and on-target with my tongue in cheek observations. And I believe I hit on both. If you do not share my take, you don't. And I'll get over it.

And i apologized to Hildy for any misunderstandings.
I'm glad you apologized, but doubling down is the wrong play.

The joke didn't land because it was not funny.
 

cornwalls@6

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IANAL, but is this as much of a farce as it seems like it is? Deferring to Snyders outside counsel, who he pays for, and who, at least to some degree, are expected to serve his needs? It feels the table is already being set for him to skate on this. Lawyers, if I'm off base, please advise. Otherwise, just one more piece of evidence that this thing I'm pathetically addicted to on Sundays in the fall is completely corrupt.


https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/07/17/nfl-plans-to-defer-to-the-lawyer-daniel-snyder-has-hired/
 

Lose Remerswaal

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BigJimEd

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The team should release all the women from those NDAs, the league should put overwhelming pressure on the team to do so, and sponsors should put overwhelming pressure on the league to do that. That this isn't already happening is an indictment of all involved.
Agreed 1000%.
Unfortunately, Snyder, the Washington organization and the NFL are going to go full force to bury this and cast it off on a few bad actors that are now gone.We'll see if more woman come forward both in Washington and other NFL teams.


As an aside, as has been discussed many times on this site with celebrity "apologies", if you start the apology with "if you were offended" then it isn't an apology.
 

8slim

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Years ago I worked with a couple of guys who left our place to go work for Snyder's RedZone operation that ran Six Flags, among other things. They did not paint a flattering picture of him. Lots of verbal abuse, with a ton of ethnic "jokes" peppered in. There's zero doubt that the culture he's created in his football front office is rotten. He's an objectively bad guy.
 

Nator

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I think most everyone here agrees with you, and Nator was being cynical about the type of people who make decisions in NFL franchises. Which is pretty warranted.
What, me cynical?
What the heck. The previous story about the cheerleaders should have been enough! Let’s see if advertisers and sponsors exert pressure. I am doubtful.
I also agree that in any sort of sane world that cheerleader story should have resulted in jail time. I was certainly not making light of this story either.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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This was really a bit of a masterclass in how to manage this sort of crisis in a cynical world. Buy yourself enough time after the press asks for comment to fire the people you know the reporters have texts on and hire a lawyer and tell your media flacks that you have done so. Let some stuff leak that gets speculation run rampant about awful stuff you must have done.

Then sit back when the story comes out and let your shills do the heavy lifting by avoiding discussing how awful what you did is, and instead compare it to the stuff you didn’t do.

It is so repulsive and cynical and this sort of PR slight of hand is exactly why it just always feels like it is two steps forward and three steps back for making any headway on getting to a place where women have equal standing in the workplace and the world. The enablers like Schaffer suck and it even feels a bit like the Post pulled its punch here and gave the team time to develop a strategy. It is so sickening.
 

bankshot1

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I'm glad you apologized, but doubling down is the wrong play.

The joke didn't land because it was not funny.
I took a satirical stab at an organization with a very long history of prejudice and misogyny. Under a lot of financial pressure they finally decided to re-brand themselves and drop the offensive imagery. However, In the midst of the re-branding effort they find themselves again exposed by their culture of misogyny and intolerance, with an expose of 10 years of sexual harrassment. My two sentence barb, in my opinion, was meant to capture the hypocrisy and toxic culture of the organization that their rebranding would mask. And i explained myself and apologized for anyone misunderstanding my intent.
 

Nator

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IANAL, but is this as much of a farce as it seems like it is? Deferring to Snyders outside counsel, who he pays for, and who, at least to some degree, are expected to serve his needs? It feels the table is already being set for him to skate on this. Lawyers, if I'm off base, please advise. Otherwise, just one more piece of evidence that this thing I'm pathetically addicted to on Sundays in the fall is completely corrupt.


https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/07/17/nfl-plans-to-defer-to-the-lawyer-daniel-snyder-has-hired/
Farce is probably the right word. From this article.
Washington has engaged outside counsel, not the NFL. Outside counsel always has a duty to outside counsel’s client. Here, outside counsel’s client is Washington. More specifically, the client is Snyder. Outside counsel undoubtedly will not make findings that include, for example, placing significant blame on Snyder for creating, tolerating, encouraging, and/or failing to rectify a toxic culture that resulted in these allegations.

Amazingly, the league has decided both to allow and to embrace this approach. Did the Saints get to hire their own lawyer to investigate the bounty scandal? Did the Dolphins get to hire their own lawyer to investigate the Richie Incognito/Jonathan Martin situation? Did the Patriots get to hire their own lawyer to investigate the Tom Brady air-pressure allegations? Far more relevant to the current situation, did the Panthers get to hire their own lawyer to investigate the allegations of misconduct that eventually forced team founder Jerry Richardson to sell?
Bullshit is probably a better word.
 

Average Reds

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Minority owners (including one who is the founder and CEO of the company that retains naming rights to the stadium they play in) don't bail over a scandal that doesn't include significant ownership involvement in the behavior in question. Yet, they are all bailing. That tells me that the actual facts - when everything comes out - are going to be much more damning to Snyder than what has been covered in the Post story. (Which is pretty grotesque to imagine, because what is in the Post story by itself is awful.)

The actions of Snyder - choosing now to change the name of the team (which is a huge story in DC) and tossing a couple of front office employees that no one had heard of to the wolves - seem designed to create enough smoke to obfuscate the true nature of the rot within this franchise. So I'm not going to be shocked if/when it turns out that there are several shoes left to drop.

Which is a long way of saying that I'm not (yet) assuming Snyder survives this.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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I took a satirical stab at an organization with a very long history of prejudice and misogyny. Under a lot of financial pressure they finally decided to re-brand themselves and drop the offensive imagery. However, In the midst of the re-branding effort they find themselves again exposed by their culture of misogyny and intolerance, with an expose of 10 years of sexual harrassment. My two sentence barb, in my opinion, was meant to capture the hypocrisy and toxic culture of the organization that their rebranding would mask. And i explained myself and apologized for anyone misunderstanding my intent.
"I'm sorry you were offended because you didn't understand my joke."

"Red Tails" was the joke. It wasn't funny. It was in fact offensive.

This is the 3rd time you've doubled-down. Several highly respected posters have pointed out the problem with your initial post. And yet it appears you still don't or won't understand the
problem.

And people wonder why more women don't post here.
 

joe dokes

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Years ago I worked with a couple of guys who left our place to go work for Snyder's RedZone operation that ran Six Flags, among other things. They did not paint a flattering picture of him. Lots of verbal abuse, with a ton of ethnic "jokes" peppered in. There's zero doubt that the culture he's created in his football front office is rotten. He's an objectively bad guy.
https://deadspin.com/a-former-six-flags-employee-contributes-to-our-satirica-5835773
https://deadspin.com/dan-snyder-the-godfather-of-official-mattress-deals-1788878139
 

Average Reds

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The Post just released an opinion piece calling for Snyder to be stripped of his franchise.

To hell with the name. It doesn’t matter what you call Daniel Snyder’s ruinous franchise. It will still be offensive. The team needs a reckoning, or a wrecking ball, as much as a rebranding. If this isn’t the trigger — if the sexual harassment allegations of 15 former female employees and two reporters cannot obliterate a despicable organizational culture — then neither Snyder nor the entire NFL ownership club is worthy of anything other than scorn.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/07/17/daniel-snyder-must-go-nfl/?hpid=hp_hp-banner-low_brewer-1020am:homepage/story-ans
If momentum builds, the NFL will follow the template used with Jerry Richardson and force a sale of the franchise.
 

loshjott

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My cynical take is that if Snyder wasn't such an inept owner on the football side, this would all be overlooked. If Washington say followed the Chiefs trajectory and hired Andy Reid, drafted Patrick Mahomes and won the SB, nobody would be sniffing around to uncover these horrific stories.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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The issue with stripping Snyder of the franchise is that Goodell had the chance to do so when the "pimping out cheerleaders and taking away their passports" story broke several years ago, and he did nothing. I haven't heard that Snyder is one of the particularly powerful owners (unlike Jones, Kraft, Lurie etc) but even so it's an odd blind spot from the league.
 

Dogman

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Yep. The sad part is if Snyder is stripped of the franchise, ala Richardson, it doesn't truly address the underlying issues that still permeate this league. It simply shifts power to some other shithead.

I'll say it again: Daniel Snyder is the Donald Sterling of Jerry Richardsons.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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No apology and he doesn't take even a shred of responsibility for this happening on his watch. Just another load of empty, "We'll do better," promises. I guess that's par for the course from this piece of trash but it's still pathetic.
"I am shocked that these things went on in the organization I own and run!"
 

mauf

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The team should release all the women from those NDAs, the league should put overwhelming pressure on the team to do so, and sponsors should put overwhelming pressure on the league to do that. That this isn't already happening is an indictment of all involved.
There’s a saying about glass houses that applies here.
 

The Napkin

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Boy am I glad that we finally got around to discussing the important part of the story - "Adam Schefter: reporter or commentator?"
 

Dogman

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Boy am I glad that we finally got around to discussing the important part of the story - "Adam Schefter: reporter or commentator?"
No shit. Let's end this tangent and get back to the topic at hand please.

I'm going to break out the Schefter posts and place in the media forum.
 

Marciano490

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The NFL continues to be the center of misogyny. From promoting stars who are rapists and abusers to quickly phasing out its domestic violence psa and committees to an entire prime organization trying to traffic its cheerleaders while racking about sexual harassment claims.
 

YTF

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I assume "Coach Rivera" is wondering why the hell he ever took this job.
Baptism by fire for sure but I'm guessing he's going to have a whole lot to say about the rebuild of not just the team but the organization. ATM he seems to be the face of the franchise both on the field and off. Do they even have a GM/president of football operations? He could come out of this a hero.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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Baptism by fire for sure but I'm guessing he's going to have a whole lot to say about the rebuild of not just the team but the organization. ATM he seems to be the face of the franchise both on the field and off. Do they even have a GM/president of football operations? He could come out of this a hero.
No, that was Bruce Allen; Rivera is de facto GM. Highest listed exec is Doug Williams as VP of Player Development; he might be getting a raise and promotion to quell the fan base.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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Minority owners (including one who is the founder and CEO of the company that retains naming rights to the stadium they play in) don't bail over a scandal that doesn't include significant ownership involvement in the behavior in question. Yet, they are all bailing.
Heard a guy from DC sports radio station suggest that minority sale has been in works for awhile.

It could be that they just hate being minority owner for a consistently crummy team or they knew something was coming down but just to be fair, no one has linked lawsuit to sale of minority shares.
 

Harry Hooper

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The issue with stripping Snyder of the franchise is that Goodell had the chance to do so when the "pimping out cheerleaders and taking away their passports" story broke several years ago, and he did nothing. I haven't heard that Snyder is one of the particularly powerful owners (unlike Jones, Kraft, Lurie etc) but even so it's an odd blind spot from the league.
You need to reboot your conspiracy cap. Mara has been shielding Snyder with NFL HQ so the Giants face one less serious contender in their division.
 

bankshot1

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I found the NFL statement a little disappointing

"The NFL said in the statement,

“Everyone in the NFL has the right to work in an environment free from any and all forms of harassment ... We will meet with the attorneys upon the conclusion of their investigation and take any action based on the findings,”

While I should not damn an independent in-house investigation before it takes place, if the NFL can spend a seeming eternity and millions of dollars on an independent investigation of cold footballs it seems even in the midst of a pandemic, it could run its own investigation of a decade long scandal, rather than rely upon an in-house investigation of the house.

i don't see Snyder being forced out on what we've heard so far. He'll probably get fined the max for lack of institutional control, and maybe get whacked draft choices and be subject to oversite in the adoption and implementation of corrective measures the investigation reccomends and the NFL rubber stamps.

View: https://twitter.com/john_keim/status/1284079663187468291/photo/1
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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I found the NFL statement a little disappointing

"The NFL said in the statement,

“Everyone in the NFL has the right to work in an environment free from any and all forms of harassment ... We will meet with the attorneys upon the conclusion of their investigation and take any action based on the findings,”

While I should not damn an independent in-house investigation before it takes place, if the NFL can spend a seeming eternity and millions of dollars on an independent investigation of cold footballs it seems even in the midst of a pandemic, it could run its own investigation of a decade long scandal, rather than rely upon an in-house investigation of the house.

i don't see Snyder being forced out on what we've heard so far. He'll probably get fined the max for lack of institutional control, and maybe get whacked draft choices and be subject to oversite in the adoption and implementation of corrective measures the investigation reccomends and the NFL rubber stamps.

View: https://twitter.com/john_keim/status/1284079663187468291/photo/1
Maybe they were shooting for satire and you just missed the joke.